'Visual clutter': Mega billboard approved for Swanston Street

A 12-storey Swanston Street building will become a giant night-time animated billboard as Melbourne wages a losing fight against a swathe of controversial new advertising hoardings in the city’s streets.

The mega-sized 305 square metre display will light up the white-painted wall of the CGI Business Centre at 231 Swanston Street from dusk to dawn and be visible by pedestrians and drivers as far away as Carlton.

The City of Melbourne maintains the giant billboard will add “visual clutter” to the city’s streets, already under siege from a deluge of new hoardings.

A mega-sized 305 square metre display will light up the white-painted wall of the CGI Business Centre at 231 Swanston Street.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

"The proliferation of super-sized high-resolution digital billboards beaming high rotation advertisements into the public realm are creating an unprecedented level of visual clutter that detracts from our city streets,” planning portfolio chair Nicholas Reece said.

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But the council is fighting a losing battle against electronic billboards and other forms of advertising.

It refused planning permission for the giant Swanston Street skyscreen arguing it would “negatively impact upon pedestrians”, cause visual distraction and obstruct views of key city buildings, including the Shrine of Remembrance.

That decision was recently overturned by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The right to beam a five-storey tall light display onto Swanston Street, one of the city’s busiest and most prominent thoroughfares, was won by advertising firm Lumen Billboards.

It will now install a bank of cinema-style, high-powered light projectors on the roof of a double-storey city building which will beam the ads across the rooftops of four other intervening properties onto the CGI Business Centre.

The Vlahos family, who own the property at 243-249 Swanston Street occupied by the Lounge Bar, refused to give consent and argued Lumen's light display would involve the "exploitation, utilisation or enjoyment" of their land.

The tribunal dismissed their concerns saying the display was not of "such a nature and at a height which may interfere with the ordinary uses of the land".

Lumen's light display would involve the 'exploitation, utilisation or enjoyment' of their land.

Vlahos family

In a further billboard blow, the council this month failed to stop French outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux from constructing 22 new digital billboards on city tram stops in Collins, Bourke and Swanston streets.

French outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux will construct 22 new digital billboards on city tram stops in Collins, Bourke and Swanston streets.Credit:Carla Gottgens

JCDecaux wanted to build 34 of the high-rotation, back-lit signs, but permits for 12 of the proposed billboards were knocked back because they were in heritage sensitive locations.

“A visual blight or a happy and lively addition to inner city streetscapes? A necessary adjunct to informed choice in a market economy or a way of raising revenue for a loss-making public transport service? To love or to loathe them?” the tribunal opined in its findings.

The city’s billboard battles don’t stop there.

Last week the council rejected another 81 applications, also from JCDecaux, to install upgraded electronic signs on Telstra's old payphones.

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Telstra's old-school technology sits in prime kerbside locations on some of the city’s busiest streets.

"With nearly 90 per cent of Australians owning a mobile phone, it's hard to believe there's a need for this many super-sized phone booths in the central city,” Mr Reece said.

The council will take on JCDecaux at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and try to prevent it from bypassing its planning rules and installing the new panels.

JCDecaux has signed a nationwide payphone deal with Telstra which, it argues, allows it to install upgraded digital panels on the telco’s payphones under the federal Telecommunications Act’s criteria for low-impact facilities, a jurisdiction that doesn’t need council approval.

The council is seeking an order that the new payphones don’t qualify as low-impact facilities.

“Cities around Australia need to review regulations in this area as the rules have not kept up with technology,” Mr Reece said.